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Friday, August 12, 2011

Government Pays For Empty Flights To Rural Airports

Cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107; cost to travelers: $70 to $90

On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.

Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are paying for a congress and president that have empty heads , so , what's new.

Anonymous said...

This was why the FAA was "shut down" for a while. The republicans wanted to shut this funding off, and Harry Reid refused.